On my trip to Bara Beach back in October I had the pleasure to stop by and see the huge sailing cargo ships known as Phinisis being built along the beach. This boat design was started in the 1600s as an interpretation of the Dutch Pinnace ships. The design in local to South Sulawesi and is still widely built and used by Buginese and Makassarese.
These ships are mainly used as cargo ships or smaller, but only slightly, version are now sometimes for overnight by-water tours. The boats can be 20-35 meters long and weigh up to 350 tons.
These ships are mainly used as cargo ships or smaller, but only slightly, version are now sometimes for overnight by-water tours. The boats can be 20-35 meters long and weigh up to 350 tons.
We had a chance to talk to some of the builders while we were there about the specific boats they were working on and I couldn’t believe what they told us! The construction of these ships is like nothing else.
- A crew of only 14 people work on each ship from start to finish
- Each boat takes 3 years to complete
- They use only traditional (though slightly modified sometimes) hand tools in the construction
- The particular boats they were building were ordered by a Chinese palm oil company that commissioned the building of 5 boats for $10million
- To finally launch to boat once its finished being built it takes hundreds of people pulling it by ropes to get it into the ocean.
Read about my trip to Bara Beach here.